Meng Blocks Trump Admin from Including Citizenship Question

Congresswoman Grace Meng hailed the decision by a federal court to block the Trump Administration from including a question about citizenship in the 2020 decennial census.

“As a member of Congress who has led the charge against the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, I applaud this ruling by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman,” said Meng. “It is the right decision and will help ensure a more accurate census count.”

“The Trump Administration’s plan to sabotage the 2020 Census by adding a last-minute citizenship question has been deeply troubling,” Meng added. “Since last year, I have continuously warned that asking respondents if they are citizens would likely decrease response rates and as a result produce an inaccurate and incomplete count that would have a decade’s worth of consequences. It would impact the distribution of federal resources and the number of Congressional districts that each state receives. This was a politically-motivated question against immigrant communities that we now know was pushed by former White House strategist Steve Bannon. It deserves to never see the light of day.”

“Although the Supreme Court will likely have the final say on this issue, we will continue to oppose any attempt to reinstate the citizenship question,” said Meng. “We don’t need a citizenship question; we need an accurate census count!”

In 2018, Meng publicly called for a citizenship question to not be added. She with Congressman José Serrano introduced a provision that sought to restrict funding for the inclusion of the question. Both Meng and Serrano are members of the House Appropriations Committee which funds the US Census Bureau.